A Father’s Prayer

June 18, 2023 Download: Audio

Matthew 6:5-13

Happy father’s day! It has been interesting over this past week hearing people talk what they might do to remember fathers, and how it invites them to reflect upon their own fathers and/or their own efforts as a father. While those reflections can bring back some good memories, they also remind us of the many shortcomings our fathers have (or had), and our own shortcomings for those who are fathers.

But what exactly is the job of a father? It isn’t what our culture has adopted, which is to cast it aside. There are far too many single mothers in the world today and too many children who don’t know their fathers. And there are too many married couples today who have largely abdicated any role of shaping their children. The culturally vogue thing to do is to NOT teach our children how to think or view the world, lest we impose our beliefs upon them and prevent them from discovering who they are. This flows out of the idea that the ultimate source of truth (for personal identity) can only be found within a person. But that is simply not true and runs counter to the reality that we are creatures with a creator who has stamped us in his image. Fathers are needed today to stand against the pull of culture for the sake of their children.

What I want to do this morning for fathers is to look again at the Lord’s prayer, a bit like we did for mother’s day, but through a different lens. I want to look at it in terms of how it speaks particularly to men. Because men, we need to know what our role as a man is if we are to understand what our role as fathers is. When we do, we begin to see how we can leave a legacy for our children. And you can work on that legacy at an stage of fatherhood. That’s the good news. So let’s take a look.